The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-10-12

1lHOs we were luOI IuuulHB 1dSL, Dc-
cause the engine was on one side. We
had broken the eccentric strap and were
| running but one pair of wheels, having
been forced to disconnect the other
| pair, which were running loose. Of
course, the accident held our speed
down little, but we had no idea the
engineer of No. 40 would have any
difficulty in keeping off from our heels.
The last time / looked back there was
ample room between US. We stopped
at Boone Grove tank and were there
almost minute before they struck u.s."
This afternoon, when the reporters
who had been long delayed in reaching
Koutz, owing to the secretiveness of
the railroad officials, began at last to
arrive, there was little in the aspect of
the village to indicate the calamity
that had so recently taken place.
ALL THE DEAD BODIES
had been removed from sight; only two
of the wounded were still in the village,
and the local employees of the road were
deaf and dumb to,all seekers after in
formation. The coroner had been
obliged TO go to Huntington, over
fifty miles distant, to obtain
the statements of witnesses, and
the villagers seemed wholly at sea
regarding the extent of the disaster.
The only person willing to tell the de-
tails of the horror, was DR.. G. W. Nc
Kee. The doctor is prosperous-look-
ing, intelligent man of about 81, who
promptly responded in the dead of the
night TO the call that he take hand car
and GO to the scene o. the wreck, three
miles from his residence. DR.. Mckee
q hCH nf
time to give his experience in detail,
but stated to the best of his knowledge
that it would not be oYerestimating the
facts to say that the collision had cost
the lives of fully thirty people. 1t was
shortly after 1 am. when
HE REACHED THE WRECK.
He Immediately began to give his
services to the wounded. Those who
were badly hurt when the crash came,
he says, must have had little chance
for their lives, so quickly had the cars
taken fire, and so thorough was the
work of the flames. As an illustration
of the destruction and the difficulty of
arriving at a correct idea of its magni-
tude, the DIR. said probably that not
soul would have been made aware
of the all-but total wiping out of
the Miller family of six, had
not their boy been saved. Dr.
Mckee stated that only nine bodies had
been recovered, and they were so badly
SCARED as to be almost beyond recogni-
lion, the most left of scarcely any of
them being a blackened trunk, and in
some cases little beyond handfuls of
ashes.
The nine were as follows:
Miller family, of Dundee-father,
mother, two brothers and girl. Their
I4-year-old boy will probably die also.
DR.. Perry. of North Judson, Ind.
Dr.. Perry's wife and DR.. Perry's
daughter, aged IL.
A young Irish lady.
Supt. Parsons, of the Chicago
noon, gloomily pacing the station plat
form. He was extremely taciturn, and
was very sure no more bodies could be,
by any possibility, under the wreck.
Only nine persons had been killed, he
declared, and not more than eleven or
twelve huIt-none of the latter Sc
riouSly. He admitted that no fagman
had been sent back from the passenger
train when the stop was made, Mr..
Parsons said the train men depending
upon the semaphore light fully 1900
feet in the rear of where the stop was
made. The conductor of the train had
pulled the cord for this light when he
stepped from his train. This would
throw the glare of
THE RED DANGER SIGNAL
on the track. The night, however, was
foggy and the engineer of the fast
freight must have failed to see the sig
nal. Superintendent Parsons thought
the accident would have been a very
ordinary one had not the stove in the
sleeper upset; that caused the destruc-
ton of the sleeper, two coaches and the
baggage car and that in the main was
doubtless the cause of the loss of life. |
Coroner Leatherman, Mr.. Parsons said, |
reached the scene from Valparaiso,
about 11.30 am, and after viewing
the debris, and making some inquiries |
had found it necessary to go to Hunt
ington, in search of witnesses. The |
wounded, Parsons explained, had been |
taken there as early as possible, and the |
passengers who were unhurt, to the |
OF twenty FIVE, had been for
warded to their destinations without de-
lay.
1t appears that Coroner Leatherman
ulu nOG lInpduel q Jury InaC procedure
is not necessity according to the laws
Of Indiana.
AT THE WRECK,
the coroner was met by Mr.. Johnson,
attorney for the Chicago and Atlantic,
and being told that the engineer of the
freight had been taken with the other
survivors to Huntington, decided to go
there, which he did, in company with
he railroads lawyer, and several other
gentlemen. The coroner is well spoken
If among the people at Koutz. They
lid not critisize his action in going to
Huntington, believing he is square. The
coroner is described as being rather a
young man to be charged with such an {
important duty as determining the re- :
'ponsibilitY tor the wreck.
A pathetic incident of the wreck is
'elated by the station agent. 1t is the |
tory Of young lady from Ohio. whose /
name could not be remembered. She
vas one OF the passengers on the ill '
ated train, and when the crash came, +
With presence of mind and energy {
worthy of strong-minded masculinitT, &
he seized an ak from its resting place
N the side Of the car and
HEwED HER WAY THROUGH l